SEATTLE – The man accused in the 1993 rape-strangulation death of Seattle punk-rock singer Mia Zapata was found guilty in King County Superior Court on Thursday.
Jesus C. Mezquia, a Cuban national, could face 20 years to life in prison.
Mezquia, 48, of Marathon, Fla., was arrested in January 2003 in the Florida Keys after DNA evidence linked him to the Zapata slaying. He was charged with first-degree murder last February and brought to Seattle from Miami last March.
Zapata, the 27-year-old lead singer of the Gits, was found dead on a street in Seattle’s Central Area on July 7, 1993. She had been beaten, raped and strangled with the drawstring of her Gits sweatshirt.
An autopsy found evidence of a prolonged struggle. Zapata suffered blunt impact to her abdomen, and her diaphragm and liver were lacerated, court documents said.
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